Book review: illustrating children’s books

Illustrating Children’s Books, written by Martin Salisbury and Published in 2004 by Allen & Unwin. The jacket cover at Amazon is different from the one I have, but be assured it is the same book – I checked.

What an absolutely stunning gorgeous book, aimed at artists and illustrators who want to target their creative endeavours toward children’s book illustration. The book begins with a brief history of of 19th and 20th century illustrating with lots of fabulous examples from illustrator greats such as Antonio Fransconi and Edward Lear as well as Randolph Caldecott and John Lawrence. Illustration now showcases several current illustrators who work in such different ways but each manage to capture the essence of the story. There are a few influential artists mentioned whose work is much admired and, such as Kveta Pacovska’s modern graphic style to Steve Johnson’s surreal and menacing images, Quentin Blake’s sketchy lyrical drawings and Tony DiTerlizzi’s fantasy style.

There is no one chapter in this book that I could say is more interesting or more necessary than another. Each chapter introduces either a style or subject that is necessary to children’s illustration. However the book begins at the beginning with the essential subject of drawing ‘the fundamental language of the illustrator’. Carrying a sketch book with you everywhere is suggested as necessary to honing your drawing skills and observation skills. Sketching everything, people interacting, facial expression, locations and textures are all important. The author also says that ‘it is vital not to pursue a style’ rather to work naturally and honestly and with passion for the subject matter and the work will evolve and ‘develop its own identity’. Different types of drawing are discussed in separate chapters, life drawing and the human body, drawing children and animals – ‘don’t be afraid to end up with page after page of unfinished scribble … the process is part of the skill development’.

Throughout each section (there is drawing, techniques and materials, character development and book style/types) there are case studies. The case studies highlight a few artists and dissects their style and way of working, such as Dan Williams whose has a wonderful sense of place in his illustrations gained from working on location and retaining a freshness and immediacy because of this. The creatures of Satoshi Kitamura and the different styles of Bee Willey who uses a combination of drawing and digital to create the wonderful fantasy characters and scenes, and Jane Simmons whose painterly and stylised approach is very popular with her books for very young children. The author uses the case studies as examples of ways of working I think these are vital to the whole book.

The second section, on media, materials and techniques is probably the biggest section and goes into on the pro’s and con’s and appropriateness of various styles. Watercolour (and the variations just in this is enlightening), paint and pastels, black and white – pencil, pen and ink, print media, collage and digital. The possibilities are mind bogglingly endless.

It is obvious that I love this book, visually stunning and full of inspirations, ideas and possibilities. Makes me want to take up illustrating and turn a part time hobby into a career. The practical section at the back on getting published just might make it all possible!